posted
I have my first Portuguese student today that knows very little English. The ESOL teachers ok'd me translating the directions for him using Google Translate (normally they highly encourage immersion), as I have been doing for the Spanish speakers. I created a basic web page with some intro to Power Point instructions and was hoping someone could let me know if the translation makes sense.
posted
You need to be careful with translation tools, as they will usually just place direct translations of words and not the proper grammar.
I speak Portuguese, but I have to ask, is the student from Brazil or Portugal? I know it is a strange question, but it does matter. There are some differences in grammar and word use.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Geraine: You need to be careful with translation tools, as they will usually just place direct translations of words and not the proper grammar.
I speak Portuguese, but I have to ask, is the student from Brazil or Portugal? I know it is a strange question, but it does matter. There are some differences in grammar and word use.
The Spanish translations worked remarkably well. I had the Spanish teacher look at them, and there were just a few small grammatical errors. Google Translate seems a lot better then Alta Vista's babelfish I used a decade ago.
But great question about his country of origin. I should have thought of that. No different then British English vs. American English or Spain vs. Mexico. I will ask his ESOL teacher.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
The only sentence I would change would be near the beginning.
I assume you typed in "Today you will be going to create a presentation in power point about yourself."
Google translated it as:
Hoje você está indo para criar uma apresentação em Power Point sobre você.
While this is a proper translation, it is pretty horrid grammar in Portuguese. The best way to put this sentence would be:
Hoje você vai criar uma apresentação em Power Point a respeito de si mesmo.
The word "vai" is a better word to use than "esta indo para." Esta can be used in the way the sentence is written, but refers more to a state of being, not something you are going to do.
The word "vai" is a conjugation of the verb "ir." A version of this verb was used in the original translation, "indo." By using "vai" we can eliminate the other three words, and make it sound better to boot.
This is probably a whole lot more information than you need. I'm sorry for that. Sometimes I get carried away. Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, someone finally found a topic to get me to register . . .
Geraine's comment about the opening instruction is correct. "você está indo" means "you are going" but implies that they really are GOING somewhere. The student might get up and leave the room at that point! When we say "you are going to do blahblahblah" we essentially mean "you will".
A few more comments: Will the student be using Powerpoint in English? If so, you should un-translate the menu items he is supposed to click. When instructed to "Clique na imagem" he's going to be confused if the he is somehow supposed to find "picture" on drop down menu. This issue is repeated throughout the presentation.
Apparently "hobby" is a word in portuguese. I never knew that until I looked it up to verify that it was wrong.
"Escolha como você deseja que o seu nome para olhar" doesn't make sense. Olhar is the verb "to look" and as presently phrased, your name is apparently doing the looking. You can see how this makes no sense by changing the phrase "how you want your name to look" to "how you want your name to gaze". By "look" what you mean is how you want your name to appear. My suggested new phrase is "Escolha como você deseja que seu nome vai apresentar-se".
"Sobre a Educação segundo o tipo slide no topo como o título, sob todo o tipo de escola você tem ido ao fim." I don't know what this means. "Segundo" should be "segunda" to match the feminine educação. I think this sentence is being confused by the word "type". In English this can be a verb meaning "tap buttons on your keyboard" or it can be a noun meaning "a class or category" (like a "type of dog"). Maybe this sentence has both usages of the word in it?
"Título este Hobbies slide" "Título" here is the noun "title", not the verb. Moreover, the words look like they've been re-arranged funny. I assume the English phrase was "Title this slide Hobbies" but it has been turned around to say "Title this Hobbies slide". A better phrasing might be "Chama este slide 'Hobbies'." (Name this slide Hobbies.) This general sentence structure comes up several times in the second half of the presentation. Finally, I have no idea how to make Hobby plural in portuguese. The word is completely stolen from English and is completely unnatural in Portuguese, so there are no rules to follow. (There is no Y in portuguese.)
Depending on the age, intelligence and computer skills of the student, he might be able to pull this off, but it can certainly be better. Reading through this, I'm noting that one of the single best things you could do in the future is to completely avoid words that have two completely different meanings in English (type), or that can be used as both nouns and verbs even if they mean similar things (title). The translator isn't good at figuring out which meaning you want.
Posts: 15 | Registered: Sep 2010
| IP: Logged |
Unfortunately I missed your posting this morning. The student did do a great job and managed to figure it all out. He was actually one of the first ones done the assignment.
I will take some of your edits though and I apply them to future translations.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
